A PETITION has been launched to make the performance of Nazi salutes a criminal offence in the UK.
It comes after groups of people have been seen performing Nazi salutes at far-right rallies across the country in recent months.
Last week, several attendees at a rally, organised by Unite the Clans in Glasgow , were filmed performing what appeared to be Nazi salutes in videos which were widely circulated on social media.
Police made 15 arrests at the demonstration, including for possession of an offensive weapon , assault, breach of the peace, obstruction, and resisting arrest.
Violent clashes between protesters and police at the weekend were also branded a “demonstration of far-right hatred” by First Minister John Swinney.
A petition, launched by Rebecca Tyler-Squires, is now calling for the UK Government to introduce legislation to make it a criminal offence to intentionally perform a Nazi salute in public.
The petition outlines that Nazi salutes fall outside existing hate speech protections unless targeted at specific groups.
It added that a “clear criminal offence” is needed to address deliberate public use, while providing legal clarity and deterring it from being used, while also protecting it from being used in legitimate scenarios like for educational purposes.
Multiple Nazi salutes at the ‘Unite the Clans’ racist & fascist rally in Glasgow yesterday. They deny they are racist as majority of society abhors it. They masquerade as ‘protectors of women’, but only use concerns over women’s safety to scapegoat& build their fascist movement. pic.twitter.com/mUhNHLWP30
— Stand Up to Racism - Scotland (@SUTRScotland) July 26, 2026
The petition reads. “We want the Government to introduce legislation making it a criminal offence to intentionally perform a Nazi salute in public (including online) or at public events, except where it is clearly used for legitimate educational, historical, artistic, journalistic or law-enforcement purposes.”
The statement goes on to explain that the Nazi salute is widely recognised as a symbol of Nazi ideology and the atrocities of the Second World War.
“Its intentional use in public can reasonably be understood as intimidation or endorsement of extremist ideology,” the petition added.
“It falls outside existing hate speech protections unless targeted at specific groups. We believe a clear criminal offence is needed to address deliberate public use, provide legal clarity and deter its use, while protecting legitimate use, where the intent is not extremist.”
A petition needs 100,000 signatures for it to be considered for debate in Westminster.
The petition calling for Nazi salutes to become a criminal offence has so far garnered more than 1300 signatures since it was launched on July 6.
German-born Professor Thomas Weber, an expert in the rise of fascism in Europe at the University of Aberdeen, told The National that there are “eerie echoes” of Adolf Hitler’s rise to power playing out in far- and extreme-right protests on the streets of Scotland.
He suspected that extremist groups in Scotland had been “studying how the far right managed to get majority support in Europe in the inter-war years” because they are “really following the playbook”.
You can find the petition here .
